Charitable Causes
by SilverTurtle
Summary: Being a model can bring many interesting assignments. When Jessica gets an unusual request for a very good cause, she's not sure what her girlfriend Bailey will think. She should have known she was worried over nothing.


**A/N:** Inspired by conversations with Lody. Jessica and Bailey are in their mid-twenties, and have been an established couple for several years.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Suite Life or any of the characters. But they crashed my party and I'm putting them to work.

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**CHARITABLE CAUSES**

"Bailey!" Jessica shouted as she fumbled with her bags, keys, and the door. "I'm home! I need to speak with you!"

"Coming," Bailey called back from somewhere within their shared apartment.

Jessica managed to wrest all her bags through the doorway and accidentally slammed the door closed behind her with a bang that made her jump. Her keys skittered along the floor when she flung them out of her hand in surprise. The bags of groceries thumped onto the floor an orange rolled away from her. She sighed and straightened up, flipping hair out of her face. She sighed and started picked up the mess she'd made.

She heard a laugh from above her, "Barely home a minute and you've already made a mess."

Jessica looked up into Bailey's grinning face, "Yes well. Are you just going to watch or are you going to help me get this up?"

Bailey tilted her head to the side, "I don't know. There is a certain appeal to watching you work…"

"Bailey!" Jessica laughed and smacked Bailey's thigh. "You're shameless."

"Only where you're concerned," was the reply, then Bailey bent down and kissed Jessica. When she stood up again she had three bags in her hands which she carried to the kitchen.

"Thank you!" Jessica called after her. Smiling to herself she shoveled her mess back into the grocery sacks, recovered her keys and placed them in the key bowl on the coffee table.

She took the remaining bags into the kitchen where she worked with Bailey to unload them and put everything away in comfortable silence.

***'***

Later when they were relaxing on the couch together, Jessica curled into Bailey's side and playing with one of Bailey's hands, Bailey spoke, "You said you needed to speak with me earlier."

Jessica lifted her head from Bailey's shoulder to meet her eyes, "Yes."

"What about?"

"A job," Jessica began hesitantly.

"A job? You have another one? That's great! You're starting to get really popular." Bailey smiled at her girlfriend.

"Yes," Jessica said, "But this one is a little different."

"How so?"

"Well, it's for a charitable cause-"

"You've done modeling for charities before," Bailey pointed out.

"Yes," she drew out the word, "but they've never wanted me to shave my head before."

"Shave your head?" Bailey asked with some surprise, "Why do they want you to shave your head? What cause is this for?"

"It's a promotion for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital." Jessica explained, "They want to get a bunch of celebrities together and raise money during a big event. Part of the event is that the largest donators get to shave a model's head and donate the hair to Locks of Love. Some of the celebrities will also be shaving their heads to raise awareness."

"Sounds like a good cause," Bailey said letting the arm holding Jessica squeeze a little, "what did you need my input for?"

"Well," Jessica replied, "I wanted to make sure you were okay with me shaving my head for this before I took the job."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Bailey was honestly mystified.

"It really wouldn't bother you?" Jessica watched Bailey shake her head, "You wouldn't…"

Bailey waited for a moment before prompting, "What?"

"You," Jessica didn't really want to ask the question but she needed the answer. She sighed and continued, "You wouldn't find me less attractive?"

"What? Because you shaved your head to raise awareness for sick children?" Bailey laughed, "You'd be just as beautiful, if not more so, as you are right now. A haircut won't change how I feel about you."

Jessica smiled, kissed Bailey thoroughly, and snuggled back into Bailey's side. "Excellent. Then I'll take the job."

"Great," Bailey said, "I can't wait to see what you look like as a cue ball!"

Jessica smacked Bailey's thigh, "Brute."

"Love you, Jess." Bailey kissed the top of Jessica's head.

Jessica rested her head on Bailey's shoulder and stretched her legs out along her girlfriend's with a happy sigh, "Love you, too."

"You okay with lopping off your hair like that?" Bailey queried into the quiet. She was completely with Jessica whatever she wanted to do but Bailey wasn't the one losing the hair she'd spent years cultivating with tender care.

Jessica leaned a little more heavily into Bailey's side and thought for a moment. She would miss her hair, it was a good selling point in her line of work, but it was also a lot of work which she would happily give up. It'd be nice not to have to dye her hair every few weeks or to spend two hours coiffing it, "I think so. It's just hair. If nothing else it'll grow back. Right?"

"Sure," Bailey agreed good naturedly, "And if it doesn't I'll just have Momma mail us some of those caps she's been knitting for our nieces and nephews."

"Ha! Right," Jessica laughed. If she didn't like it at least she knew her hair would grow back…eventually.

***'***

Two months later and the night of the big event had arrived. Bailey had been gifted a ticket by the agency in charge once Jessica had requested her presence. She sat at a table facing the well lit stage, surrounded by celebrities and politicians. This event was a lot bigger than Jess had made it sound. They were raising many thousands of dollars. It seems lots of people were eager to get their hands on a pair of electric clippers, and a surprising number of people willing to go under those clippers.

"All right people," said a tuxedoed man stepping onto the stage as models carrying stools filed past him, "It's time for the moment you've all been waiting for. Our main event! All night you've seen people stepping up to enter their donations. Now we've got our ten models here ready to let our biggest monetary donors shave their heads for charity. Let's give them a hand folks!"

There was a prolonged applause while the models smiled and waved taking their seats. Bailey's eyes were riveted to Jess' figure. She was gorgeous, as usual. Her dress molded and accentuated her perfect body in ways that made her the envy of her peers. Bailey looked closely at her girlfriend's face, she could see the traces of nervousness but they were mostly buried by the pride she felt at being part of such a good cause. Bailey was proud of her too, the fact that she was willing to do this, to possibly lose work to do this, to sacrifice her lovely locks…Bailey couldn't have been any more proud, or anymore in love.

The announcer called up the ten top donors informing the audience of the size of their donations and guiding them to their assigned model. "Remember folks, nothing goes to waste here. Leftover food will be donated to various soup kitchens around the city. Tableware and decorations will be recycled for other events. Even the hair our lovely models are losing will be donated and turned into wigs to benefit the children suffering from cancer. You all will have the chance, after this, to make your own donations of hair if you so choose. Now, let the shearing begin!"

The ten donators took up their clippers, and with the help of a professional, cut the hair of their models to much cheering and hollering from the crowd.

Bailey watched Jessica's expression as the first swath was removed from her head. She saw the briefest moment of heart stopping panic bloom in Jess' eyes before it was smothered and Jess grinned. Actually, she was beaming. Her whole being seemed to lift and Bailey was mesmerized by the transformation. When it was over and Jess' head was completely bare a reporter approached and took a photo of Jess and the donor who had shorn her. There would be dozens of pictures taken of donors, models, and patients in varying combinations. The plan was to use the photos to create a calendar, the sales of which would directly fund the hospital.

After the photographers had finished with the models and the moneybags, various other volunteers took their places to donate hair and more funds; some were hoping for good press and others were just moved by the display.

Jess slid off the stage and presented herself to Bailey, the wide smile she'd worn since that first buzz growing impossibly wider. "What do you think?" she asked.

Bailey stood so she could reach up and run her hands over the impossibly soft and smooth skin of Jess' scalp. "I think you look happy, so I'm happy," she smiled up at her girlfriend, wishing Jess' monstrous heels didn't lift her so far out of reach. Usually Jess was only a couple of inches taller than Bailey, but in heels Jess just towered over her. And even though Bailey was wearing modest heels herself tonight, they were nothing compared to Jess' working shoes. Jess must have read her mind because a moment later she'd stepped out of her heels and into Bailey's personal space coming nose to nose and smiling. Bailey, not one to waste an opportunity, took advantage of their currently equal heights to express her pleasure at Jess' joy with an extremely thorough and enthusiastic kiss. One hand cupping the back of Jess' newly bare head and the other snaking around to press her closer by the small of her back.

They only separated when they became aware of the wolf whistles and shuttering camera sounds.

"So," Jess teased with a wicked grin, "You like it then?"

"Oh, I think I could get used to it." Bailey replied, rubbing her hand over Jess' scalp and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

***'***

The promotion succeeded in its goal, raising unexpectedly large amounts of money.

The calendar sold extremely well. Well enough that they had to print up several thousand extra copies. Jess and Bailey attributed its success to the enterprising editor who had included a centerfold spread of the two of them kissing (that picture now hung framed in their bedroom).

Jess' work schedule had become much more crowded after the event, many companies wanting a chance to use her (and sometimes Bailey, too) to promote their products, events and causes.

True to her word Bailey did get used to Jess' bare head. She grew so fond of it she was almost disappointed when Jess allowed her hair to grow out again. Though she thoroughly enjoyed the peach fuzz stages of the growing process, often running her hands over the soft hairs and giving Jess impromptu scalp massages.

Jess was surprised with how pleasant she found baldness. She didn't know why men whined about it so. She'd found the whole experience extremely liberating. It helped that Bailey had barely been able to keep her hands to herself, and that her popularity as a model had skyrocketed. She'd made a decent sized fortune in the months that followed that event. Agencies had been clamoring to take advantage of the novelty of bald models.

Even so, Jess had been happy to let her hair grow back. For one thing she was thrilled to see her natural hair color again. For another she'd finally been able to stop rubbing sun block into her scalp. She was hoping her hair would be long enough by winter to cover her ears, she hated the cold and as much as she loved Momma Pickett she was going to avoid the knitted caps if she possibly could (she'd eventually cave and sport the caps, she'd even come to prefer them over more stylish headgear and begin a resurgence in the popularity of knitted garments).

**THE END**

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**A/N:** Done. Please review.


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